Matthew Check is a singer-songwriter based out of Brooklyn, New York. ‘The November Album’ originally dates from recordings made in 2013, but which are finally seeing the light of day eight years on. This is a really enjoyable collection of acoustically-driven rootsy country-pop songs, with a definite early ‘70’s Laurel Canyon sound at times.
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Folk Radio UK calls Kiely Connell’s debut LP, Calumet Queen, “A late in the year contender for the best-of lists”
Hailing from Hammond, Indiana but now Nashville-based, Kiely Connell recorded Calumet Queen live with longtime guitarist Drew Kohl. It’s a terrific alliterative debut and a late in the year contender for the best-of lists. READ MORE…
Check out Angela Perley’s exclusive solo acoustic performance + 5Qs with Ditty TV. New single, “Here for You,” out NOW!
Americana rocker and Columbus, Ohio-based artist Angela Perley is hard at work on her next LP, the follow-up to 2019’s 4:30. She says that the next album has a different feel than 4:30 but that she wants to keep the details a surprise until closer to the release date.
Under the Rug
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A change in perspective can paint a picture in a whole new light. Austin, TX trio Under the Rug took this idea to heart when creating their stunning LP, Dear Adeline, a ten-track collection of emotive, dynamic indie rock that chronicles grief, tumult, and healing after the loss of a loved one and simultaneous dissolution of a romantic relationship. Like Richard Linklater’s Boyhood, Dear Adeline was written and self-produced in real time over the course of five years, each track capturing a specific moment in time that, when put together, creates a beautiful, three-dimensional portrait of the grieving and healing process. “If you’re not surprising yourself or learning something through the songwriting process then your songs will probably be boring,” says vocalist Casey Dayan. “The first few songs we wrote for Dear Adeline were written right after my mom died and my relationship ended and are really reactionary, and then the rest I wrote as I was figuring things out over the last few years. Each song on the album is a different stage of dealing with those events.”
Since forming over a decade ago, Under the Rug have cut their teeth as songwriters and engineers, writing and recording dozens of projects, amassing a dedicated fanbase, garnering praise from major publications like American Songwriter and independent tastemaker blogs including Mystic Sons, Two Story Melody, Comeherefloyd, LA On Lock and more, and even receiving a co-sign from The Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle.
In addition to the natural growth that comes with the passage of time, Dear Adeline was written in part during a major shift for Under the Rug, as the trio—Dayan, guitarist Sean Campbell, and drummer Brendan McQueeney—relocated from Los Angeles to Austin, Texas. That change spurred their creativity in a new direction, pulling them out of a self-described rut that was the result of staying in one place for too long. “There’s something exciting about being in a new area and experimenting in a new space,” says McQueeney. “We had no idea how anything was going to sound in our new studio, so we were like kids, just trying things and playing around and it gave us this new energy.”
Stretching out such an emotionally raw project over a period of years, however, took an understandable toll on the group and Dayan in particular, whose own experiences are the primary inspiration for Dear Adeline. “Making this record was hard!” says Dayan. “There were times when I felt done with it—I’d moved on and was happy—but I’d started this years’ long project that was asking me to keep putting myself back in that headspace.”
Listeners will find that the group’s trust in one another and willingness to lay themselves emotionally bare results in an album that is as emotionally resonant as it is sonically compelling. At its core, Dear Adeline is a stadium-ready indie/alt record, but it continuously twists in different directions, dipping into prog, bluegrass, and folk territories throughout its runtime.
Dear Adeline kicks off with its title-track, a reflective folk/rock song written immediately after Dayan’s mother passed away and his relationship dissolved. It finds the vocalist attempting to write from the perspective of his future self, a self-penned reminder that one day things will be better. “I was in a really dark place when I started writing,” says Dayan. “But what was harder was trying to figure out how to end the saga, trying to see ahead. The way it finally ended is way more mature than it started, more of an observation about relationships in general rather than just the immediate anger I was feeling. In songwriting, you kind of have to be empathetic towards your characters, which is hard when it’s someone who hurt you. But I’m definitely better for it.”
Elsewhere on the album, the group takes a more high-concept approach to examining the grieving process. “Go To Sleep” is a mesmerizing ballad about the weight of insomnia, while “Eating Carrots” is a raw, somewhat humorous depiction of desperation in the throes of emotional distress.
To hear Dear Adeline as it is being released is to hear an empathetic chronicle of the healing process, but also an impressive exercise in restraint when it comes to editing. “These songs were all written at a specific moment in time,” says Campbell. “When we look back at them it’s easy to judge them and want to update them, post-healing, post-closure, but you have to leave them alone.”
“Some of these songs are just downright salty, if I could now, I would go back and edit some of them,” adds Dayan, “Be a little more mature, maybe, but I think that vulnerability is where the magic is. Just gotta let them sit and be what they are.”
Dear Adeline is out February 25th, 2022.
Jim Keaveny
Singer-songwriter Jim Keaveny could be a character out of a Mark Twain novel, born on the Missouri River before traveling through the country with a railroader’s restlessness. Ostensibly, he’s settled in the hard yet beautiful Texas desert where he lives off-the-grid in a house he built with his bare hands, surviving on rainwater he can’t waste, but his picaresque lifestyle still takes him around the world. Keaveny’s off-the-beaten-path lifestyle is featured in Chase Peeler’s new book On The Porch: Life and Music in Terlingua, Texas.
Keaveny’s traveling ways helped him develop a distinct Tex-Americana musical style that integrates influences from cosmic country to mariachi. Throughout the years, he has garnered praise from Austin to the Netherlands and was chosen to play the prestigious Kerrville Folk Festival. His regular comparisons to Bob Dylan and John Prine make sense with his rich, down-to-Earth vocals and smart lyrics.
“Sunrise” began decades ago during his childhood piano lessons, but his instructor didn’t care about his attempts at songwriting.
“She’s was a nice woman but very strict. She just wanted me to learn the classics,” Keaveny says. “So, I did. I won trophies and things like that, but when I showed her something I wrote, she’d kind of push it aside. She wasn’t interested. I composed a song on piano that became ‘Sunrise’ back in those days. The whole melody, the changes, everything except the lyrics. I’ve had it with me for many years, that particular song, and then I turned it into a completely different thing.”
Over the years, Keaveny built “Sunrise” from a childhood piano melody, to a straightforward folk tune, to a full-band love song that embodies the spirit of the Southwest. Keaveny was reeling from his divorce. It was one of the darkest times in his life. He was fighting off a heavy depression, when he met a woman who became a shining beacon of hope—to pull him from the darkness and into the light.
“She helped me heal from my divorce,” says Keaveny. “It’s like the sun set and it was gone for a year and a half. Sitting there wondering what I did wrong. Am I a bad person? She gave me the attention and love I needed. It ended up not working out, but she had a big impact on me at that moment. Just to have someone say, ‘Hey, you’re fucking awesome.’ I had this moment of I’m back. I’m back on the scene. I’m alive again! This song was a euphoric experience.”
“Sunrise” starts off mellow and dreamy, before bringing listeners along for the ride of coming out of a depression as horns kick in during the final bridge in an exaltation of joy. This song feels like you’re on a beach, with palm trees blowing in the wind, and realizing that you’ve fallen in love with the person you’re dating and you can’t wait to tell them.
“Golden Carmen” began when Keaveny had a psychedelic encounter with a woman named Carmen. They only exchanged a few words, but in that moment, he experienced love at first sight. It’s a song that thrives on desert sensibility while introducing more lysergic musical elements to amplify Keaveny’s psychotropic experience.
“The idea of this golden woman on a beautiful summer day stuck with me,” Keaveny says. “Years later I met this woman in Colombia with something golden about her and suddenly this song came out of me. That’s the way I write songs. Sometimes it takes a long time.”
It makes sense that Keaveny’s songwriting would focus on these specific moments of his unique life. He’s a lover and a troubadour. He’s a searcher and a drifter. He lives to experience life away from the social norms the rest of us are slaves to. He can see Mexico from his Terlingua, Texas, solar-powered homestead and regularly travels to Colombia, but – while those areas might influence his work – it’s hard to predict what Keaveny might produce next.
He began this recording project with his longtime collaborator Bill Palmer (bass, guiro) as they bounced from Howlin Dog Studio (Alamosa, Colorado) to Studio Torreón (Santa Fe, New Mexico) to Kevin Zoernig’s studio (Las Vegas, New Mexico), and mastered by Christian Wright (Radiohead, Arcade Fire, The National) at Abbey Road Studios in London. When recording, Keaveny always gets by with a little help from his friends and brought in Justin Lindsey (electric guitar), Jim Palmer (drums), Kevin Zoernig (harpsichord, piano, hammond 3C, wurlitzer), Eric Ortiz (trumpet), Stephanie Hatfield (backup vocals), and Bella Palmer & Abbey Wolf for the handclaps in “Sunrise.”
“I just evolve the way I evolve,” he says. “I just go with whatever comes in my head. It’s just inspiration, and I’m changing just like everybody else on the planet. Every day is something new. We evolve. Music has always been with me. My whole life, even as a child, music has been in my head. It comes to me. I don’t overthink it. I just feel it. The music comes to me and I am very compelled to record it.”
As “Sunrise” & “Golden Carmen” are heart-on-his-sleeve love songs, Keaveny remains drawn to the craft he began pursuing long ago as he continues his artistic travels, finding inspiration in the people he meets along the way. “I think about Carl Jung and the intersection of music and the collective unconscious,” Keaveny says. “I believe that we’re all connected by music very much.
Kiely Connell chats with WMOT Roots Radio to discuss debut album “Calumet Queen”
My first introduction to Kiely Connell’s rich, emotive voice was as the lead vocalist on some songs by Paul Zografi, a Nashville songwriter and producer and I was immediately drawn to Kiely’s voice. It’s got grit and texture, yet it’s soothing, all delivered with depth and intensity. READ MORE…